- Conference
- Lesbian,Gay,Bisexual & Transgender Conference 2005
- Date
- 29 July 2005
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that in the UK, people living with HIV/AIDS face discrimination and harassment at work and within wider society. HIV/ AIDS has always been a workplace – and a trade union – issue. From December 2005, workers living with HIV will be covered by the anti-discrimination provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act from the point of diagnosis. Conference believes that this legislative change provides an ideal opportunity for branches to raise the issue with employers and ensure that appropriate anti-discrimination policies and practices are agreed and implemented.
Conference instructs the NLGBT Committee to work with the NEC to reissue guidance for branches on this issue.
Conferences further notes that HIV related stigma and discrimination is unique as, unlike other forms of disability discrimination, it is linked with and reinforces other forms of discrimination such as racism and homophobia.
The vast majority of people who are living with HIV/ AIDS in the UK are from Black African communities and/or are Gay or Bisexual males and will be sexually active with people who are Black African and/or Gay or Bisexual. Education, prevention and treatment resources should be targeted at Black African and Gay/Bisexual communities. Conference is concerned that the Government’s current message that HIV/ AIDS is an issue for everyone is correct on one level but risks diverting limited resources away from communities most at risk.
Since 2001, funding for HIV services ceased to be ring-fenced within local health authority budgets and that this has had a massive adverse impact on the allocation of resources in this area.
Conference further instructs the National LGBT Committee to work with the Health Service Group and the NEC to campaign for properly resourced prevention and treatment services that are particularly targeted at the communities that are most in need.